20 bodies in Ludlow Cemetery not registered

Up to 20 bodies have been buried in a cemetery in Shropshire that are currently unaccounted for in official council documentation, it emerged today.

Officials say they have no records of the 20 people that have been buried at Ludlow Cemetery.

It follows an audit at the cemetery in Henley Road which was sparked after a woman spotted gravediggers digging a plot she had reserved for herself about 15 months ago.

Officials at Ludlow Town Council, which runs the cemetery, today claimed undertakers had been burying people in plots without providing details of the deceased to the council – meaning the authority had no details about who had been buried in up to 20 of the 2,000-plots.

Funeral director Stephen Hoskins, of Hoskins & Son, said the problems had been caused by administration errors between undertakers and the council. But he said every person buried in the cemetery was matched with the correct gravestone.

Veronica Calderbank, town clerk, said staff had walked around the cemetery checking graves and had found 20 graves which the council had no paperwork for.

She said: "If someone enquires where a person is buried we would be unable to tell them.

"Since then a full audit has taken place. Undertakers have been burying bodies without forwarding the necessary paperwork to the council – but we will catch up with them."